Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Zimmerman Helps a Family from a Car Crash

Human Interest Story
or PR Move?

Another development in the George Zimmerman verdict
aftermath came out yesterday. According to news sources, George Zimmerman came
to the rescue of a family who was involved in a car crash. The family’s vehicle
overturned and suddenly Zimmerman appeared and helped the family out of the
car. He waited around to give the police his statement and then left. The
police said that Zimmerman was not a witness to the accident but just a Good Samaritan
who stopped and helped a family in need.

This story brings up several interesting issues, none of
which really deal with the sequence of events. The first thing that struck my
attention about this story was that when I researched it, one of the first
sources I saw reporting on the story was TMZ. TMZ is not so much a news source
but a celebrity gossip column which is why I found this story in that
publication amazing. Zimmerman has now reached the level of celebrity that is
usually reserved for Hollywood movie stars such as Brad Pitt or George Clooney.
It seems like America has now reached a new low with its “celebrity”
obsessions. America has been fascinated with Hollywood actors for the longest time
treating them like royalty. In semi recent developments, we have now been
fascinated with those who have seemingly no skills and only are known because
their parents have money. Now we seem to treat acquitted suspects like
celebrities and even cover them on a tabloid program.

Another issue involving the Zimmerman car crash case
involves the timing of the story. This event happened shortly after the not
guilty verdict. According to sources, Zimmerman has been in hiding, because he
has been receiving death threats. Now not long after that controversial verdict,
Zimmerman is back in the news, this time not as a suspect but as a hero. This
has led some to believe that possibly the event was staged or that Zimmerma
hired a PR team. I tried to do some investigating to see if I could get both
sides of the stories or see if any reputable news sources uncovered if this was
in fact a staged event or at least a PR ploy. I couldn’t find anything
definitive on either side of the argument. I did, however, find a transcript of
a Rush Limbaugh rant saying that he knew the “liberals” would try to come out
and say that this was a conspiracy or a ploy to make Zimmerman look good.

This part of the story brings two issues to mind for me:
First, I do not know why this story is such a big deal (I mean I do but I don’t
think it should be). I believe Zimmerman was wrong to shoot and kill Trayvon. I
believe that he made some bad decisions and that some prejudices (even if they
were subconscious) helped motivate his actions that night. I think he should be
punished for his poor judgment, because an innocent boy is dead. But I do not
think Zimmerman is an inherently evil man. We all make decisions that go
against our better judgment, but unfortunately for Zimmerman his choices were
worse than the ones most people make and someone ended up dead. That being said
I don’t know why it is such a big deal he helped a family. His whole defense
was being an avid neighborhood watch participant and wanted to protect his
neighbors so of course it would be in his character to help someone involved in
a car accident. That being said, just because he helped someone doesn’t mean I
will forget his poor judgment that night and completely wipe his slate clean.

The second thing that came to mind after reading the Limbaugh
article was, “How did this story become a liberal vs. conservative case?” Can
this case really be politicized? I mean of course it can and it has but is it
really a liberal issue to want to see a person punished who acted in poor judgment which
led to a young man losing his life? Actually what I find interesting,
if the roles were reversed and an African American man who was in the
neighborhood watch, stalked a young white teenager because he thought he looked
suspicious, and then the young teenager ended up dead would the conservatives
still say the verdict was just and the liberals still be outraged? Or would the
roles be reversed and the liberals say the verdict was just and the
conservatives thinking the justice system did not live up to its job? Or would
the race reversal actually unite the two sides and either have them agreeing
that the verdict was wrong or the justice system worked the way it should? It
is crazy how much race changes things in this country. We like to think that
things are getting better with regard to race relations and in some ways they
have, but still in other ways we still have some of the same ideas and
viewpoints that have plagued this nation for many years.

These are just some of the thoughts I had concerning this
little news story. I guess the news sources are running out of things to cover
with the case if they are now covering car accidents. It will be interesting to
see how long this story stays front and center in the news. Maybe the royal
baby will knock it out of the news cycle for good.